advice on Drupal for non-profits

Thanks David. For starters, what is the best way for a non-profit with limited staff and budget to get over Drupal's infamous "learning curve?" I'm the only full-time technology person, and I have one part-time person and a couple volunteers. We're all very proficient in HTML, CSS and JavaScript but have only dabbled with CMSs. Should we take a class and do it ourselves? Try to find a consultant who will get us launched and trained with a website we can maintain going forward?

We need a website that's a mix of semi-static information about the organization and dynamic article publication, that non-techies can update. Drupal's user permissions and taxonomy appeal to me for that reason.

Any advice is appreciated.

We use Drupal for the local Democratic club (similar to a non-profit): http://www.princetondems.org

Audubon Society is converting their sites to Drupal - you could contact their developer (Aaron) who is in NJ. E.g. http://shop.projectpuffin.org/

I suggest going to a meetup - people would likely be happy to discuss your use case. Or look at the showcase forum to see if there are implementations similar to what you want to do: http://drupal.org/forum/25 or http://drupal.org/search/apachesolr_search/non%20profit?filters=tid%3A25...

I agree with yktdan above. As a CMS platform, Drupal is exceptional and I can confidently say that it can meet the needs of most not-for-profits, large or small. We have built Drupal powered websites for a many not-for-profits, educational groups and for-profits. We have yet to meet a requirement that can't be handled almost exclusively by Drupal core and the many well-supported modules available for Drupal. Custom development is very rarely necessary. Add CiviCRM to Drupal and you've got quite a powerful platform for running your Org.

But I think you already recognize that the "which platform" question is secondary to other important questions.

When considering how to power your organization's website, here are some standards I think your organization should shoot for: You want to build a good, reliable, logical website that makes sense to your consituents and serves their needs and yours; you want a CMS that will be usable by your lean staff of technical and non-technical users; you want a system that will have a shelf life that extends beyond your own involvement in the organization; you want to do it as cost-effectively as possible.

Getting a CMS powered website up and running isn't that difficult. Getting a site up and running that meets your organization's specific needs and that meets the standards I set above is more of a challenge. Is it doable by a lean staff without much CMS experience? Yes, eventually, but through trial and error, training and lots of time. And those things all have costs associated with them, direct and indirect. And I can't tell you how many times we've stepped in to help organizations that lost one critical employee and when along with that person went all the knowledge about how their website and other technologies worked. You don't want to put your organization in that position.

So I think you have to ask yourself whether or not your organization's budget is going to be best spent on the trial and error, training and time that you will need to produce a good, usable website that will outlast you. Is the organization's mission to create PHP programmers and Drupal experts? Probably not. If your organization is large, there may be good arguments for investing in these skill sets. But if your organization is small, the question deserves some honest evaluation.

In the long and short terms, I think the organization's money would be better spent working with an experienced professional. That person or company should be able to connect your knowledge of your organization and your constiuents with their knowledge of how to build an effective CMS powered website for those audiences, quickly and cost-effectively, without trial and error. Then you will have a system in place that allows you and other members of your organization to do the work on your website that is directly in support of your mission - communicating, organizing, building membership, development, etc.

Note that I haven't said that your organization's money is best spent on a Drupal professional. I think regardless of the platform, contracting outside knowledge and experience is the best approach.

The great thing about Drupal as a platform, however, is that not only will it likely meet your needs, but it is open source and supported by a world-wide community of experienced professionals. You may build the website with one professional, but over time you may need to call on other professionals to support you. While your website will be distinct to your organization, building it in Drupal means that in the future any other experienced Drupal professional who is brought in to work on it will be able to hit the ground running. And as you can see from this forum, there many professionals right in your backyard. So regardless of who built the site, regardless of what your IT staff looks like in 5 years, your site will have continuity and support built in.

Hope this food for thought is helpful. Best of luck with your project.

Thanks all for your thoughtful responses. Unfortunately if the next meetup is June 9 I have a conflict, but I would like to talk to consultants interested in working with a non-profit in the Newark area. If you're interested, please contact me directly with links to Drupal sites you've developed. Thanks!